The Ship of Dreams
by thedeliverygod
Summary: Yato wins a pair of tickets in a game of chance, setting him and Yukine on a course for home. Once aboard the ship, their lives begin to change in ways he could have never imagined. (Titanic AU, drabble collection)
1. Chapter 1

"I'm still pissed at you." Yukine muttered, trying not to be too awed by the view of the vast ocean in front of them from the bow of the ship, "We could have lost _everything_."

"But we didn't!" Yato answered cheerfully, stepping up a little higher than Yukine would like, "And now we're on a ship back to Japan!"

The younger boy grimaced before snapping, " _Yato_ —"

"Besides," Yato's voice dropped and Yukine's jaw locked shut in surprise, "What was there to lose, really? We were practically living on the street."

All of the air seemed to escape him as he tried to answer, "That's not—that's not the point." He swallowed, trying to regain enough composure to complete his lecture, "I'm just saying you need to think things through! I mean, yeah, we're on the ship. But if you'd lost, we would have money we could have used for a month or more to eat. You see what I'm saying?" He sighed heavily.

Yato jumped down suddenly, making Yukine's shoulders lurch in surprise. A smile on his lips and his voice soft again, he asked, "I haven't let you down this far, have I?"

Yukine blinked, "No…"

"Then just trust me." He flashed a grin and the boy sighed again.

"Whatever you say."

As they walked back across the deck, they both noticed a man slightly older than Yato smoking a cigarette and dressed to the nines. "Shouldn't you be a bit more careful with your kid? It's kind of dangerous to be on the front of the ship like that." He commented in a low voice.

"He's fine, he's older than he looks; he's just short." Ignoring the glare coming from the fuming teenager, he questioned, "What's with the monkey suit? Seems a bit weird for, uh, common steerage, as they say."

"Oh." The man looked down to his clothes, "Yeah. I'm actually not in steerage, but I'm more comfortable with the people down here. It's stuffy as hell up there, in more ways than one." Tossing his cigarette over the side of the deck, he continued to explain, "My wife and I are sort of new at this whole upper class thing. It's nice to not worry about affording shit, but man. The people are terrible." He held out his hand, "I'm Daikoku, by the way. Daikoku Kanda."

Yato reached out to take his hand, shaking hit, "Yato Ametsuchi, this is Yukine." He motioned towards the younger boy.

"Nice to meet you." He added from Yato's side.

"Nice to meet you, Yato, Yukine." Daikoku gave a genuine smile which the pair returned.

Retracting his hand, Yato gave a bit of a smirk, "The people may suck, but I'm sure at least the food and booze will be great."

"Very true. That is the one thing I can't complain about it."

Daikoku continued talking, but Yato's gaze had been caught by a girl on deck above them. Her brunette hair danced behind her as she rested her elbows on the railing, staring out into the ocean. As he stared, he noticed her expression seemed fairly upset and he couldn't help but find himself wondering what was bothering her.

"Oh, no." Daikoku shook Yato's shoulders, regaining his attention, shoving a finger in his face, "She's the _exact_ kind of person I'm talking about; my wife Kofuku deals with that family all the time. You don't want to even _think_ about it."

Before Yato even had the chance to respond, Yukine answered, "No worries about that, he can't even get a date with a girl on our own level, much less someone like her."

"Can't a guy just look? Jeez." He huffed in response to both of them, stealing a glance again before returning to their conversation.


	2. Chapter 2

"Can't believe he kicked me out of the room." Yato muttered to himself as he stared up at the clear starry sky, chewing on his lip in annoyance, "After I was the one who got it for us in the first place. Ungrateful brat." He shivered and pulled his jacket closer to his body, starting to think that maybe he should just find somewhere on the ship to lurk around until Yukine finally gave in and let him in again.

Just as he started to push his elbows into the bench to lift himself up, he heard the heavy clacking of heels on the wooden deck as well as loud sobs rushing past him. Keeping low, he peeked over the top of the bench to see the same girl he had been staring up at earlier that day, clinging on to the rail desperately and looking down into the ocean as her shoulders shook in time with her cries.

After a minute or two, the sounds grew quieter and she seemed to get a determined look on her face before stepping up onto the first bar of the railing.

At that, he snapped upward, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

The girl whirled her head around in shock, "W-what? Who are you?"

"That really isn't important right now." He got up from the bench and pushed his hands into his pockets, "'Again, _what_ are you doing?"

Her mouth hung open in surprise, "I-I-I'm—" She turned back to look over the back of the ship, "Nothing. I'm just upset, alright?"

"So you're not planning on flinging yourself off the side of the ship, then." Yato answered in somewhat of a mutter.

" _What_? No! I—" She had started to turn again to look at him before the heel of her shoe tangled in her dress and she started to dip forward, letting out a loud scream.

" _Shit_." He dove forward and grabbed both sides of her waist, yanking her backwards with enough force to knock both of them over. They both hit the floor with a yelp, Yato panting and the girl sputtering out a few coughs. "Are you…okay?" He took a few breaths before he could finish his question.

She inhaled deeply, "Yes, I think so." She sat up quickly and moved to the side of him, her face getting flushed, "E-excuse me, sorry."

"Don't need… to apologize." He breathed out before coughing as well as he sat up, "Unless you were going to off yourself in front of me."

"I _told_ you—" She fired back at him angrily before he waved her hand to shush her.

"HOLD IT!" They were interrupted by the sound of pounding footsteps of a group of men rushing towards them.

Yato's eyes widened, "Wha—" The girl's eyes flashed to him, almost seeming apologetic, confusing him more until he found himself with his face pushed against the ground and his hands pulled behind his back, "The hell!?"

"Rabou-san—Kouto!" He heard her voice from above him as if she had stood up.

As whoever held him pushed him even harder against the deck, he heard another voice answer, "Hiyori!" The voice then turned into pure venom and he felt what felt like a shoe begin to press down into his back, "How dare you touch my fiancée—"

" _Kouto_ , stop!" Her voice was shrill, "Rabou-san, you too. He was helping me!"

Yato was released only to find himself harshly shoved upward to meet two glares, Hiyori's worried face just barely within his line of sight.

"Is that true?" The man with auburn hair lingered just a few inches from his face, his intense stare not faltering a bit.

Yato glared back out of sheer annoyance, "Yeah."

Hiyori took a step in between them, explaining frantically, "I was trying to look at the… the, um…" she trailed off, waving her hands.

"The propeller…?" He questioned back, squinting his eyes.

"Y-yes." She nodded sheepishly.

The white haired man gave a sharp laugh, commenting, "Goes to show you that women and machinery don't mix."

Yato didn't miss Hiyori's quick glare at his words, but he let out a sigh of relief as the grip holding his hands behind his back finally released him. He shook his wrists in front of him, trying to get rid of the numbing feeling that had started to creep in.

"So I guess we've got a hero on our hands." Rabou looked at him smugly, suggesting, "Don't you think he deserves some sort of award?"

He almost sounded sarcastic, but the other started to reach into his jacket, "I suppose you're right—"

"Are you really going to put a price on saving my life, Kouto?" Hiyori asked in disbelief, her voice cracking.

His eyes widening as he realized his mistake, he withdrew his hand and hummed to himself, "Hiyori is displeased… Hm…" He looked up before turning back to Yato, "How about you join us for dinner tomorrow night so we can recount your tale of heroism?" He motioned towards him for his name.

Rabou looked on in disbelief and Hiyori seemed to be urging him to agree, so he did, "Uh… Yeah, sure. And it's Yato."

"We'll see you then." She took a step forward, lowering her voice, "And thank you."

The three of them started to walk off before he cleared his throat, "Actually, would it be alright to bring along my kid—uh, kid brother?" He wasn't really his brother, nor truly his child, but he wasn't sure what else to call him, especially in front of _this_ sort of audience.

Hiyori paused before smiling brightly, "Of course."


	3. Chapter 3

**I've had most of this written for a while, but I couldn't figure out where I wanted to stop since this is supposed to be a drabble collection rather than a full length chapter lol. This story is sort of on the back burner Good Enough is sort of coming to a close, I want to focus on that for the most part. But I'll try to update this here and there.**

Hiyori had spotted him on the lower deck that morning and attempted to subtly wave him up. After giving her a blank look in return, she waved more furiously, earning the looks from other passengers and causing both her and Yato to turn light shades of pink.

"What's up?" He tried to ask as nonchalantly as possible as she let him through the gate, avoiding the harsh stares that were still very much present.

"Nothing, I just wanted the chance to speak to you in a… calmer setting." She tugged the fabric at his arm before rushing forward, "Let's move farther down the deck."

"Don't have to tell me twice." He mumbled under his breath, glad to escape their audience.

Finding a good stopping point, she turned around to face him and looked him over for a minute before squinting, "If you have a little brother, why is it that I always find you without him? Are your parents on the ship?"

"Ah, no." Yato swallowed and cleared his throat, "Yukine isn't really my brother, but I didn't really want to get into that during that moment, you know. There was enough going on. He's a kid that I sort of take care of, but he does alright on his own as well. He's short, but he's a teenager."

Her frown only seemed to deepen, "Well it doesn't seem like you're doing a very good job of taking care of him if you're just letting him wander around a ship on his own."

He laid his portfolio across his chest and crossed his arms over it, "Truth be told, he made friends with some kid named Suzuha shortly after boarding and he'd rather hang out with him than me. And for your information, Suzuha's parents _are_ aboard the ship, if it helps you feel any better. Not that that's any of your business, really."

Seeing Hiyori turn red again and part her lips with a lack of something to say, he smirked and added, "I've been on my own since I was fifteen. My old man was abusive so I got the hell out of there as soon as I could. My little sister came with me at first, but dad didn't treat her nearly as bad as me, and she ended up going back to him despite everything. But anyway, I found Yukine who was pretty much in the same situation as me and I was already somewhat used to having a kid tag along by that point, so I just took him in myself."

"O-oh…" She chewed on her lip, still at a loss for words and sympathy shining through her expression.

Yato leaned his back against the wall, "Don't worry about it. We've struggled, but we're making it okay. I mean, we're on this ship." He made a wide gesture with his arms before looking back at her, "Anyway, what's your story? Why were you so worked up last night?"

Hiyori took a breath before laughing nervously, "I'm sure you'll think I'm being over dramatic."

He didn't say anything, just waved his hand forward urging her to continue.

"It—it's _everything_. I don't even have room to breathe anymore. I'm constantly being asked a million questions or being watched even when I'm just trying to have some solitude. It's a miracle I even managed to catch you like this. There's just so many expectations, hundreds of invitations have been sent out, and I've been weighed down by literally everything ever since I got this." She held out her hand to reveal an elaborate engagement ring, but she looked at it as if she wanted to do nothing more than rip it off of her finger and toss it into the sea.

Yato raised his eyebrows at the ring momentarily, thinking, ' _That thing's probably worth more than anything I'll ever make in my life._ ' Looking up at her face, he asked, "Do you not love him, then?"

Hiyori dropped her hand and looked at him with wide eyes, "What?"

Rephrasing the question, he asked, "Do you love him?"

"T-that's…" She coughed as if she had lost all the air in her body before she regained her composure, "That is a totally inappropriate question."

"…It's a really simple question, actually." He put his hands on his hips and gave her a smug stare; sure that he already knew the answer.

"One that's extremely rude and that I'm not obligated to answer." She huffed in response, "Anyway, I invited you up here; this is my part of the ship. I think you should be heading back."

Yato quirked an eyebrow, "Now look who's being rude."

Hiyori let out another huff before roughly grabbing his portfolio out of his arms, "What is this thing you've been carrying around all morning anyway?"

"It's—" He reached out after it for a moment before letting his hand fall back to his side, "It's my sketch book."

The more she flipped through it, the more her mouth opened wide in awe. When she finally looked back up at him, she commented in a small voice, "These are really good."

"Er, thanks." He muttered sheepishly, looking down at his shoes.

"No, really. They're _very_ good." She sounded awestruck.

Yato gave somewhat off a scoff, trying not to let her admiration go to his head, "Glad you think so, all the so called professional art critics don't seem to agree."


End file.
